COOP pharmacies is an independent cooperative with 45 pharmacies and more than 100,000 customers in Belgium. The organisation uses RetailSonar to objectively inform its location decisions. "With a one-button operation, we now know exactly what the impact of a modification, opening or relocation will be," it says.
Is every pharmacy performing at maximum strength? Where is there still room for improvement? What does a new location or relocation deliver? With RetailSonar, COOP assesses adjustments, openings and relocations quickly and objectively. COO Maxime Bernaerts shares his experiences.
Sales forecast as a one-button operation
"We now switch very quickly when a property is up for sale. In the geomarketing platform, we see exactly where we can still open new pharmacies. With a one-button operation, we have an indication of the sales potential and know whether it is worth pursuing a case.
The return on a location decision
As a board of directors, we had a clear goal in mind, says Maxime: "We wanted to make better informed choices and communicate them clearly to our entrepreneurs. We cannot optimise all 45 pharmacies on all aspects at once. Our entrepreneurs want all kinds of things (laughs): an automatic entrance door, more parking spaces, a dynamic cross on the facade ... But which improvement is most beneficial varies from one branch to another.
"RetailSonar shows us exactly where investments yield most"
You can only spend each euro once. Sometimes it yields 1.10 euros, other times 3 euros. With the RetailSonar platform, we can see at a glance what an investment in a particular location will yield. It shows us exactly the components we need to work on."
From gut feeling, environmental studies and experience to data-driven location strategy
Before COOP worked with RetailSonar, the cooperative made location decisions based on gut feeling, environmental studies and experience figures. Maxime says: "Suppose we opened a new pharmacy in an area with 10,000 inhabitants and 3 pharmacies, we hoped to serve 2,500 inhabitants. But of course that is far from reality. RetailSonar's platform helped us map the complexities. As a result, our location decisions are much more accurate than before."
20 factors driving sales
COOP strongly believes in a data-driven location strategy: "Initially, we fed the platform with 30 to 35 location characteristics. Think of the number of square metres of audience space, shelf space, type of entrance door, presence or absence of a threshold, number of free parking spaces. But also more subjective aspects such as staff quality and marketing aspects. We contrast these with each pharmacy's transaction data."
"Certain factors have a much bigger impact on sales than we thought"
COOP came to surprising insights: "Certain factors turned out to have a bigger impact on the performance of our pharmacies than we thought. And vice versa: sometimes we had too high expectations of certain adjustments." In the end, 20 factors remained that had the biggest impact on our pharmacies' sales.
Maxime adds: "In addition, RetailSonar combined all the rules from the government, which guarantees an equal geographical distribution of pharmacies. A particularly complex puzzle, which resulted in one clear map. We can now see down to address level where we can locate."
RetailSonar as a valuable partner
Maxime is very pleased with the cooperation: "Many consultancy companies are very commercially driven. I have never had that feeling with RetailSonar. RetailSonar's consultants want to create the most relevant geomarketing platform possible for us. Everyone is helping to "crack the code". It really feels like a partnership, where it's all about added value in the longer term. RetailSonar especially wants to grow in quality, which is something you notice enormously as a customer."